79 | Bridesmaids

1.8K 39 5
                                    

You never think coming up with one name could be so hard. I mean, there are hundreds of perfectly good names out there, but when it comes to the name for your child, all those names start to sound terrible.

"Lilly," Alex suggested, his head on the side of my bed. We had been trying to think of a name to put on the birth certificate for about an hour and a half now.

I shook my head and laid back on one of my pillows, "No. I knew a Lilly in middle school. Sounds like a sweet name but that girl was evil. She used to hide my lunch all the time. Samantha?"

"There are too many Samantha's out there." Alex groaned, "Cory?"

"You're so tired that you've forgotten the child was a girl." I laughed.

Alex looked up at me, "No, like the girl version of the name. With a K."

"Still no." I disagreed.

"Any luck?" Arizona walked in.

Alex and I looked at each other at the same time. "Arizona." we both said.

Arizona cocked a brow, "What?"

"No." I told her, "That's what we'll name the baby. It's a reoccurring theme here to name your baby after one of your surgeons."

Alex stood up, clapped his hands together, and headed for the door, "I like it. Write it down. I have work, so see you later."

"Bye!" I waved.

Arizona pulled up a chair beside my bed and smiled, "I feel honored."

"It's not that big of a deal." I filled out the remaining blank spaces and handed the sheet of paper to her, "Besides, it's a pretty name."

"Well, thank you." she folded the paper up and set it down on the side table, "How are you doing?"

I thought for a moment, "Good. My shoulder and hip are still sore but I think I should be back to work soon. I better be anyway, because I am missing out."

"I meant how are you doing." she repeated, "You lost your child two days ago."

"I'm fine." I told her as she grabbed my hand, "I'm trying to stay positive. I'm going to be okay. It's...sad and of course, I'm sad but there's nothing I can do about it now."

Arizona forced a small smile, "I'm glad. April's wedding shower is starting soon. Would you like to come?"

"Love to." I nodded, "I need to get out of here. That nurse keeps trying to get me to eat and I have no clue what's in the soup for today."

Arizona chuckled as she got up and grabbed the wheelchair that we kept in the room. Slowly, she helped me stand up and sit down in it. She started to push me, but I grabbed onto the wheels to stop her. "I can do it myself." I assured her, "I need to get some strength back and it's not that far."

Arizona stepped back, "Okay, okay. Lead the way."

"Hey, hey, hey!" I announced as I wheeled myself into the room where the shower was being held.

April stood up and gave me a hug, "Ellie! How are you?"

"Ready to watch you open some gifts." I smiled, "Go ahead. Don't stop for me."

Sitting down, April pulled something out of a box. "Oh! You are gonna love that thing." one of April's three sisters, Kimmy, said, "I use mine all the time."

April looked at it, a little confused, "Great!"

"It's a salad spinner." Meredith told her, "I don't know what it does. But the guy at the store recommended it and...the receipt is on the back."

"Thank you, Mer." April giggled.

"Ooh, another bow." one of the sisters, Libby, picked one up, "Who's making the ribbon bouquet?"

Arizona reached out, "Ooh, hey, yay."

"So she can carry it at the rehearsal." Libby smiled, "Super fun."

Arizona picked up another one of the gifts from the huge pile, which I now realized I had not contributed to. "Aw, April, I'm sorry." I apologized, "I didn't get you a gift. They won't let me leave this damn hospital to go shopping."

"Don't even worry about it," April told me.

Arizona handed the thin box to April, "Okay, um, you know what? This one is from your sisters."

"Oh, no, not that one." they all said, "We wanted to save that one, Duckie, to open in private."

April smiled wide, "Oh, my God. You guys, you-you actually remembered? You remembered how much I wanna wear Mom's veil?"

"No, we didn't-" they watched in shock as April ripped the box open. Reaching in, April pulled out a white silk thong with white beads where the crotch fabric should have been. "Oh. This isn't Mom's veil." April held it up.

"It's not." one of the sisters mumbled as Cristina started to laugh, "We are sorry. That was supposed to be for later. But since you've opened it...surprise! It's for your wedding night, for when you and Matthew..."

"Oh, God." April scrunched the fabric up in her hands.

"There's no reason to be embarrassed." Alice snickered, "We all had our first times, too, right, ladies?"

Libby nodded, "We wanted to give you the lingerie and some tips. The pearls, by the way, are for the inside-"

"Stop. Just stop talking." April told her.

"But Matthew is your first real boyfriend." Alice stated, "We're trying to help."

April took a deep breath, "Please, don't."

"And he's a great catch," Libby assured her.

Alice nodded, "And you don't have the best track record with men."

"No, she doesn't have any track record." Kimmy took a sip of her wine, "When I found out you had a boyfriend, I was like, 'Don't make any sudden movements.'"

"Oh, my God, stop talking to me like no man has ever found me sexy." April snapped.

Kimmy looked to her, "Duckie-"

"And stop...calling me...Duckie!" April ordered, "I'm not Duckie anymore. My acne cleared up years ago. I got rid of my braces in college. I-I wear contacts. I use makeup. I did years of physical therapy to correct my pigeon toes, and in case you haven't noticed, I've learned how to condition my hair. I'm not your...hopeless, ugly little sister anymore. I am not an ugly duckling. I'm a swan. And a surgeon...a freaking kick-ass surgeon...who, by the way, has had sex before."

The sisters gasped. "Does Daddy know?" Alice asked.

"You know what?" April huffed, "You're fired as my bridesmaids, all three of you. I don't want a single one of you standing up for me at my wedding."

Kimmy scoffed, "Honey, don't be silly. You have to have bridesmaids."

"And I will." April looked to Arizona, Meredith, Cristina, and I, "These are my people now. Right?"

Arizona smiled, "Right."

"Yes." Cristina nodded.

"Of course," I told her.

"These are my bridesmaids." April threw her arm around Arizona.

"Yay!" Arizona grinned.

The three sisters just sat across from us, scowling and staring. They were not happy.

══════════════════

"How was the shower?" Alex asked, my hands on his shoulders as he helped me take my first few steps down the hallway.

I cracked a smile, "April snapped at her sisters. It was funny to watch, but I am a bridesmaid now so let's pick this up or I'll never be able to actually stand at April's wedding."

"Okay, calm down there, Usain Bolt." Alex mocked me, "How are you doing?"

I huffed, "Everyone keeps asking me that. I am fine. I'll be even better when I can get back to work."

All of a sudden Alex stopped walking. "Stop it." he told me, "Stop acting like this isn't affecting you. Okay, I know you pretended that you didn't care that much about the baby but I got that text you sent me the night of the crash. You were excited."

"What does it matter now?" I asked, "It was never going to work out, anyway. You didn't want a kid so it would have just been me."

Alex shook his head, "No, it wouldn't have been just you. I would've been there every step of the way."

"And how did Jo feel about that?" I asked.

"She understood...and she understands even more now," he replied.

"Alex." I sighed, "What did she look like?"

Alex smiled, "She was beautiful."

Code Blue | Grey's Anatomy // Book 2 // COMPLETEDWhere stories live. Discover now